LONDON (Reuters) - Britain Thursday authorized its National Health Service
to import blood plasma to protect the public against the ``theoretical
risk'' of contracting the human equivalent of mad cow disease. Health Secretary
Frank Dobson said the move followed three recalls of blood products in
November because donors contributing to British-made plasma developed Creutzfeldt-Jakob
Disease (CJD). ``This will reduce the possibility of repeated recalls of
blood products in the future and thereby help to help to maintain public
confidence in these products,'' he said in a statement in which he stressed
that the measures were purely precautionary. ``We have no evidence to show
that nvCJD (the new variant of

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) can be transmitted
via blood products or blood - the risk remains only hypothetical. But we
must proceed on the principle that it is better to be safe than sorry,''
Dobson said. Britain decided on the move on the advice of the UK Committee
on Safety of Medicines which also suggested blood from donors suspected
of having nvCJD should be recalled. Previously recalls were limited to
confirmed cases of the brain wasting disease. Dobson also announced that
only synthetic versions of the blood clotting agent Factor VIII would be
given to hemophiliacs. ``Though the risk of nvCJD transmission is hypothetical,
nevertheless the fear of it is very real to this group which has previously
been affected by both HIV and Hepatitis C transmitted from Factor VIII,''
Dobson added. The British Medical Society and medical experts welcomed
the

move. ``Although the risks are very,
very tiny, the public has a right to be informed and to be assured that
the Department of Health is taking effective action to secure a safe supply
of blood products,'' the professional organization said. ``We have always
taken, and will continue to take, all practicable precautions to protect
patients and the public health,'' Dobson said. ``If there is even a hypothetical
risk and there are available safe alternative sources of products, then
it makes sense to use them.'' The measures are the latest safety precautions
since the government announced that there could be a connection between
the new strain of CJD and mad cow disease, or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy
(BSE), nearly two years ago. The news led to an EU export ban on British
beef. Last year scientific studies confirmed that eating contaminated beef
was the likely cause. Agriculture Minister Jack Cunningham earlier this
year banned beef on the bone as another safety measure. Scientists think
BSE, which first broke out in British herds

in 1986, was caused by the use of cattle
feed containing material from the carcasses of sheep that died from a related
brain disease to cattle.